


Luxa and Nox

by Sandlight



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cute, Dark, Destiny, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Happy Ending, Latin, Magical Realism, One Shot, Pre-Relationship, Princes & Princesses, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Soulmates, True Love, light - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:21:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27182380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandlight/pseuds/Sandlight
Summary: Princess Luxa of Urbem only goes out once a month to walk among the civilians of her city. Usually, the city only shows her its best side, but today, one brave boy sneaks out of the shadows to catch a glimpse of the princess of light, and their lives are changed forever.
Kudos: 3





	Luxa and Nox

**Author's Note:**

> Just a cute little blurb I wrote a while ago. I hope you enjoy. <3

Her hair is white, wispy. Her eyes are blue and vast, but they are cold. She holds her head high and the crown perches ostentatiously on her head. There is no mistaking that Princess Luxa is noble, fair, and everything good in the world.

Nox crouches in the shadows. His black hair is short and sticks up at odd angles. He is dirty from the refuse of the streets. He has never set eyes upon the woman who will inherit the light of the Earth. Now, though, he sees her and cannot repress the surge inside of him. He stands a little straighter and Luxa looks his way. They lock eyes.

Suddenly, her cold, aloof air is gone and all that exists is Nox and Luxa. Something potent reverberates in the air between the two pairs of eyes. Her handmaiden jostles her, bringing her back to the place where she belongs. She glances around her, looking small and lost. The guards keep marching and her handmaiden urges her forward. Nox watches as she takes a deep breath and walks forward along the Floresco Path.

He knows, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he belongs with that woman.

“Nox, what is going on?” Sordes, his companion, whispers. “Come back, people can see you here.” Nox melts into the shadows, doing what he does best. Beggars, homeless, thieves: none of the underworld of Urbem is allowed to mar the image of the city while the princess is out on her monthly walks. Today is no different, but Nox has wanted to see the princess since he was little. Today is the day he chooses to take the risk. And it is worth it.

“Did you see her?” Nox asks when they reach the hovel where Sordes and his family live. His mother and his younger sisters are cooking. They accept Nox as one of their own, because they know what it is to lose a parent, and Nox has lost both.

Sordes chuckles. “Yes, Nox. I saw her. She was beautiful, of course. She is the jewel of the city, and she will inherit the sun. She is not for the likes of you.” He then goes to hug his mother and sisters. Nox stands near the entrance, thinking.

Luxa looks at herself in the mirror. She sees the same face she has always seen – pretty enough to make men look at her with ardor in their eyes, but too pretty for anyone to see past the face. Except for one. She did not know his name. That was her greatest regret.

“Princess, are you finished?” Luxa heard. Famula, her handmaiden and personal servant, is coming into the washroom.

“I am,” Luxa says, standing. She wants to find the man with such dark, piercing eyes. She has never seen anyone with clothes so ratty, a face so dirty. He should be easy to find. “Famula,” she began. “I know that there are poor in Urbem, for all everyone tries to hide it from me.” Famula wrings her hands, as if she has done something wrong. “I need you to tell me where they are.” If possible, Famula looks more nervous.

“Princess, why do you need to know that?”

“I want to find someone,” Luxa replies, absolutely sure of herself. Famula cannot argue with that tone. She knows her mistress too well.

A few hours later, Luxa sits in a chair across from Excursor, the city’s best spy. He is to find her mysterious dark man for her, but he informs her that it will take a very long time. She does not want him to worry the citizens of Urbem, so he cannot reveal what he is doing. He tells her that there are thousands of poor in the city. The only thing going for them, really, is the very accurate image of the man Luxa has. Every time she shuts her eyes, he is there, rampant in her mind.

As fate will have it, it is exactly one cycle of the moon until Nox and Luxa meet again. Luxa need not have expended the effort of hiring Excursor, for Nox finds her all on his own.

He has washed as best he can within the filth of the city. He has stolen clothes from a tailor’s shop. They fit him ill, but they are worth more than anything else Nox has ever laid hands on before. He has tried to look like a noble, to rise to the same station as Luxa.

Luxa sees him about halfway through her walk down Floresco Path. She notices the differences in him but she doesn’t even realizes what he was aiming to look like, because she is focused instead on the darkness in his face.

Floresco Path is made of fine sand with no rocks, but Luxa pretends to trip and falls to her hands and knees. A hundred people are suddenly at her side, and all eyes are on her. Into this commotion enters Nox. He pushes easily and gently through the ignorant crowd and then he is just feet away from Luxa, who is standing up slowly.

The guards are coming to their senses and pushing away all those who do not belong. Nox knows he only has seconds. “Princess Luxa,” he says, breathless. He had a plan, once, but thought is gone. There is nothing beyond primal existence between the two.

“Who are you?” she whispers the question that has haunted her for the last month. A guard moves forward and starts to push Nox away, but Luxa will not have it. She stands firmly, palms out. “No!” she shouts, and the sun comes out from behind a cloud. Heat rises faster than is ordinary. Meanwhile, shadows grow starker, more obvious, but Nox ignores them. Now is not the time for hiding.

“I am Nox, and you are Luxa. Like day and night, we follow one another eternally, destined never to meet.” These are the words that he has prepared. They come back to him now. He cannot finish, though, for Luxa stops him.

“We have met, Nox.”

“Indeed,” he agrees. “Without day, there can be no night, Luxa, and so it is for me with you. When day and night are united, something fearsome might happen, but I am willing to risk it. An adventure is something I have never been known to decline.”

The heat is unbearable now, and people are cringing beneath its fury, the fury of the princess of light. Nox and Luxa alone stand untouched. “Take my hand,” she says. Nox obeys, and the sun relents. There is a hum in the air. It echoes around the city of Urbem, an echo of harmony.

The guards hesitate, afraid to defy the princess and send Nox away, but thinking it must be done. Then Luxa laughs, and releases the tension. “He is mine, and nothing can take that away. Shadows are right in the sunlight. Nothing is more natural than our union.”

And something broken inside Urbem is healed this day.


End file.
